Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin; Written by Himself. [Vol. 2 of 2]
With his Most Interesting Essays, Letters, and Miscellaneous Writings; Familiar, Moral, Political, Economical, and Philosophical, Selected with Care from All His Published Productions, and Comprising Whatever Is Most Entertaining and Valuable to the General Reader

By Benjamin Franklin

Page 203

by any meansunequally supported or unequal in its weight, the heaviest part descendsfirst, and the rest follows impetuously. Hence gusts after heats, andhurricanes in hot climates. Hence the air of gusts and hurricanes iscold, though in hot climates and seasons; it coming from above.

The cold air descending from above, as it penetrates our warm regionfull of watery particles, condenses them, renders them visible, forms acloud thick and dark, overcasting sometimes, at once, large andextensive; sometimes, when seen at a distance, small at first, graduallyincreasing; the cold edge or surface of the cloud condensing the vapoursnext it, which form smaller clouds that join it, increase its bulk, itdescends with the wind and its acquired weight, draws nearer the earth,grows denser with continual additions of water, and discharges heavyshowers.

Small black clouds thus appearing in a clear sky, in hot climatesportend storms, and warn seamen to hand their sails.

The earth turning on its axis in about twenty-four hours, the equatorialparts must move about fifteen miles in each minute; in northern andsouthern latitudes this motion is gradually less to the poles, and therenothing.

If there was a general calm over the face of the globe, it must be bythe air's moving in every part as fast as the earth or sea it covers. ** *

The air under the equator and between the tropics being constantlyheated and rarefied by the sun, rises. Its place is supplied by air fromnorthern and southern latitudes, which, coming from parts wherein theearth and air had less motion, and not suddenly acquiring the quickermotion of the equatorial earth, appears an east wind blowing westward;the earth moving from west to east, and slipping under the air.[37]

[37] See a paper on this subject, by the late ingenious Mr. Hadley, in the Philadelphia Transactions, wherein this hypothesis of explaining the tradewinds first appeared.

Thus, when we ride in a calm, it seems a wind against us: if we ridewith the wind, and faster, even that will seem a small wind against us.

The air rarefied between the tropics, and rising, must flow in thehigher region north and south. Before it rose it had acquired thegreatest motion the earth's rotation could give it. It retains somedegree of this motion, and descending in higher latitudes, where theearth's motion is less, will appear a westerly wind, yet tending towardsthe equatorial parts, to supply the vacancy occasioned

Keimer, being in the street, look'd up and saw me, call'd
out to me in a loud voice and angry tone to mind my business, adding
some reproachful words, that nettled me the more for their publicity,
all the neighbours who were looking out on the same occasion being
witnesses how I was treated.

, to be made use
of in it, some of which I have still by me; but the necessary close
attention to private business in the earlier part of my life, and
public business since, have occasioned my postponing it; for, it being
connected in my mind with _a great and extensive project_, that
required the whole man to execute, and which an unforeseen succession
of employs prevented my attending to, it has hitherto remain'd
unfinish'd.

Of these are a Socratic dialogue, tending to prove that,
whatever might be his parts and abilities, a vicious man could not
properly be called a man of sense; and a discourse on self-denial,
showing that virtue was not secure till its practice became a
habitude, and was free from the opposition of contrary inclinations.

"
"My dear friend," says he, pleasantly, "how can you advise my avoiding
disputes? You know I love disputing; it is one of my greatest
pleasures; however, to show the regard I have for your counsel, I
promise you I will, if possible, avoid them.